The First Practical Combat Lesson
I cleared my throat with a small cough and slightly lowered my head, sneaking a glance at Shiruen’s expression.
Her face showed pure confusion, as if she couldn’t understand why I was acting this way. There wasn’t even the slightest hint that she was teasing me.
She genuinely thought One Flash was a cool name.
Of course, I didn’t think it was a bad name either. If I had, I wouldn’t have muttered it under my breath in the first place.
But having someone else say it out loud was a completely different matter.
It felt like someone had found a cringey notebook I’d scribbled in during my middle-school chuunibyou phase and was now reading it aloud right in front of me.
If the person reading it had any malice, at least I could hate them freely. But pure, innocent curiosity with zero ill intent? That was actual hell. There was no way to fight back against that.
Just like Shiruen right now.
“Your drinks are ready.”
Thankfully, the coffee arrived at that exact moment. I stood up and headed over to grab it.
I needed the walk to organize my thoughts. I deliberately slowed my steps, racking my brain as hard as I could.
Setting aside the One Flash comment, her real offer was to make me her exclusive teaching assistant. Normally I would’ve turned it down in disgust, but when the person making the offer was the Fighting Star, the story changed completely.
A freshman personally sought out by the Fighting Star herself, asking if he would become her assistant.
That title would probably stick with me long after I graduated from the academy. And if I accepted the assistant position, it would follow me for life under the assumption that I was under her wing.
Considering the weight of the Fighting Star’s name, it was an incredible offer.
But when I listed out the traits I possessed, it didn’t feel all that amazing anymore.
Each one was a trait that could reach the absolute peak of its domain.
Having multiple of them made it only natural that I’d caught the Fighting Star’s attention.
And this was after I’d only shown her martial arts and magic. I hadn’t even brought out my spirits yet.
Then again, just being able to handle both magic and martial arts at the same time was enough to get called a crazy bastard anywhere else. Maybe she couldn’t imagine there was more.
Clink.
I picked up the tray and walked back toward Shiruen.
Since she hadn’t ordered anything specific, both drinks were iced Americanos. The ice cubes inside the cups clinked and swirled.
Staring at the ice that looked like it was about to spill over, I paused for a moment.
Of course I had no intention of accepting Shiruen’s offer. The benefits of being under the Fighting Star would be tempting to any normal person, but…
Not for me.
Fame? I could get that through other means anyway. I was already drawing enough attention as it was. There was no need to go even crazier here.
Besides, if I accepted the assistant position, there was no way the Fighting Star would leave me alone.
She was already the instructor in charge of first-years. I could clearly picture her dragging me off somewhere, working me to the bone over and over.
That would eat into my personal time. It would also make it harder to go looking for elixirs.
Sure, my growth speed would be faster, but even without borrowing the Fighting Star’s power, this body still had plenty of room to grow. I was only at the First Hierarchy, after all.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check. Just in case.
“Finished thinking?”
As soon as I set the coffee down, Shiruen picked up her cup and asked. She must have noticed I was deep in thought from all the weird movements I’d been making.
Even I had to admit my behavior had been pretty awkward. It was a relief she hadn’t paid it much mind. I’d have to figure out a more natural way to act in the future.
“If you know how to fix this, Professor, I’ll accept your offer.”
“Oh? Fix? Fix what? If you’re talking about the side effects of that One Flash technique, it’s simply because your body can’t keep up with the destructive power of the skill…”
“Erectile Dysfunction.”
“Kek—cough, cough!”
Coffee sprayed out of Shiruen’s mouth.
“W-what?”
“Erectile dysfunction.”
“…The one I’m thinking of?”
I nodded instead of answering. Shiruen stared at me with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
“But there’s already a cure for that. What era do you think this is?”
“If it could be fixed that easily, I wouldn’t be asking, would I?”
“Wow, shit. I’m losing my mind.”
Shiruen swept her hair back and frowned. She rolled her eyes for a moment as if thinking, then suddenly shouted as if she’d remembered something.
“Y-you! Don’t tell me you asked the Sage the exact same question?!”
“Yes. He just tossed me one spiritual medicine.”
“This guy is a real fucking lunatic, isn’t he?”
So that’s why the Sage called him a crazy bastard. Shiruen muttered to herself and looked at me like I was insane.
Hey! Do you people even understand how important this is?! Do you know the difference between having it and not having it?!
Could you endure the emptiness and hollowness you feel every single morning when you wake up?!
I’m completely justified…!
Erectile Dysfunction — Still active.
No known cure found.
In the end, it seemed Shiruen didn’t know how to fix my trait either.
She said there was no way she could solve something the Sage himself couldn’t fix. Something like that.
That made sense. The Sage was practically omniscient within the Final Academy. If even he didn’t know, there was no reason the Fighting Star would.
After that, she threw out various other conditions, but I rejected every single one.
They were either things I didn’t need or things I could obtain later anyway.
Shiruen looked disappointed, but what could she do?
There was no assistant position in the game route I wanted.
The silver lining was that she didn’t become obsessively fixated on me.
Shiruen and I sipped our coffee, chatted about this and that, and left the café only after we’d finished our drinks. Because it took a while to drink the coffee, we ended up talking about more than just her offer.
One of those topics was how I was conducting myself.
“Why do you deliberately cause so much commotion?”
At first glance, it sounded like she was scolding me for stirring up trouble with the other students, but knowing Shiruen’s personality, that probably wasn’t it.
“I’m not the type to just quietly take it when someone picks a fight with me.”
She was usually indifferent toward students. Most players assumed that because she only got excited and taught passionately during combat classes. Honestly, I used to think the same.
But that was a misunderstanding.
“If you keep acting like that, you’ll end up isolated and left behind.”
After playing through the game multiple times, I learned that Shiruen actually cared about her students more than she let on. She just didn’t show it openly.
Take her practical combat classes, for example. If she only cared about fighting, she could’ve just sparred with the top-ranked students. But she treated everyone equally.
Bottom-ranked students and top-ranked students alike—she made sure to clearly address every weakness they had.
“You’ll be spending three years at this academy. It won’t do you any good to be ostracized.”
Because if you were, you’d die.
When combat-track students went out to hunt monsters, the most common cause of death wasn’t encountering an Irregular stronger than their rank. That was extremely rare.
Most deaths came from simple mistakes or carelessness.
The Fighting Star—Shiruen Arpelt—knew this fact. That was why she had come to the academy and taken charge of the upperclassmen who would soon face real combat.
I knew it too.
“I’ll try my best.”
I didn’t feel the need to reject her sincere concern.
Yeah. I should at least make an effort. An effort.
After my conversation with Shiruen, nothing particularly big happened.
Kang Seok and his gang had been properly beaten down, and after seeing my spar with Tana, even Ferdinand seemed to avoid messing with me directly and kept his distance.
Since their leader wasn’t touching me, the rest of the trash didn’t dare either.
In fact, it felt like they were actively avoiding me.
And it wasn’t just Ferdinand’s group.
Cheon Yu-ha’s group and the German and French factions also seemed to deliberately stay away from me.
Well, it was the result I’d expected. I’d caused that much chaos even before classes had properly started.
In that sense…
“This class is so boring…”
The fact that the second-ranked student was slumped over beside me like a corpse might actually be the strange part.
“If it’s boring, just sleep.”
“Can’t. You know how sharp this professor’s eyes are.”
I nodded in agreement. During the last lecture, I’d lowered my head to nap and suddenly had a piece of paper fly straight into my skull.
The professor’s expression back then had been downright terrifying.
Even now, remembering that face sometimes gave me nightmares.
“Oh, after this class ends, we’re supposed to gather at the plaza.”
“The plaza?”
“Yeah. I think it’s probably the practical combat class.”
Tana’s eyes sparkled brightly as she spoke about the practical class. Well, that was to be expected.
Unlike being trapped in a classroom listening to lectures for over two hours, practical combat classes involved moving your body and hunting monsters.
Of course, they weren’t real monsters. Real monsters didn’t appear until at least second year.
These were probably just mana constructs—puppets, basically.
Still, they weren’t something to take lightly. Even though they were puppets, they had to demonstrate the danger of real monsters, so they possessed a decent amount of destructive power.
Enough to injure you, even if not fatally?
That’s how it was in the game, but honestly I wasn’t entirely sure. Either way, your HP bar would still drop, and game over was still game over.
But more importantly—
“I hope the teams are formed well.”
Tana voiced exactly what I was thinking. The practical combat class wasn’t just about gaining real combat experience against monsters. It was also meant to help students adapt to party play with their teammates.
That was why they had us fight the puppets in teams of three.
“Wanna team up with me?”
Even though she knew it was random, Tana smiled brightly and asked anyway. She knew there was no way the top student and second-ranked student would be put together, so she was just joking around.
I glanced at the professor who was passionately teaching at the front, then clasped my hands tightly together.
Please. I’m not even asking for a good player. Just please, please don’t give me any trolls.
“Ah.”
I stared blankly at the assigned team displayed before me.
Lee Sungjin. Kang Seok. Cheon Yu-ha.
Me, the guy I beat up, and…
The Sword Saint’s granddaughter.
Looking at the team I’d been assigned, I wondered whether I should be happy about this or not.